Culture of disgrace in Africa
Some traditional values, such as female circumcision, polygamy, and other outdated customs, handed over by ancestors to tribes are doing more harm to Africa than good.
Female circumcision has caused more health hazards to females than ever imagined but this old tradition of female genital mutilation is still widely practiced in many African countries.
Polygamy in royal households in Africa is another factor draining some of the African countries' financial resources. A couple of months ago, King Mswati III of Swaziland caused public outrage by sending his favorite wives on a globe-trotting shopping spree.
The royal ruler, despite the poverty of his people, used 7 million dollars of state money to send five of his thirteen wives and dozens of their aids to France, Italy, Dubai, and Taiwan on a secret shopping trip.
The Swaziland people are suffering but they are smiling, the fact that it is a criminal offense to criticize the king's private life in their country. Campaigners have reacted angrily against the British government, which gives aid totaling 65 million pounds to the African country. Swaziland also receives about 235 million dollars from the US.
The king of Swaziland has a personal fortune of $240 million and also receives money from the national budget for the upkeep of his family, yet more than two-thirds of the country's 1.2 million population survive on less than fifty cents per day, and more than a quarter of the adult population suffers from the HIV.
In a country like Swaziland where education and health should be priorities, he spent $5 million on 20 armored Mercedes-Benz cars. A journalist from Swaziland Solidarity Network told the British times newspaper
"They shout about Zimbabwe but they keep quiet about what is happening in Swaziland, even though they are one of its biggest aid donors. They are wasting British taxpayers' money on this tyrant."